


Left Behind

by tickedtabbyflower



Category: Vampire Chronicles - Anne Rice
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-14
Updated: 2014-12-14
Packaged: 2018-03-01 09:54:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2768915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tickedtabbyflower/pseuds/tickedtabbyflower
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After finally meeting with his long lost fledgling, Marius finds that forgiveness cannot always be retrieved as easily as he thought.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Left Behind

Marius had watched his youngest fledgling for nearly three centuries before turning his broken heart away from the sight of Amadeo playing the devils minion. He couldn't stand that his pupil had fallen so easily into their ploy, but he also understood. His young lover would've died in the fire with the rest of his boys otherwise. Marius had hunted the world with Bianca, but he still couldn't help but spy on his young son.  
Armand hadn't been eager for anything, just caught the spell and stayed with it until it ended. Lestat had finally made an ending to his reign in the catacombs, leaving the auburn cherub of Venice open. Marius decided to take the chance after a few years of watching him in the Paris theatre.   
The play had been a hit. The seats were packed from the box seats all the way down. He'd watched as Amadeo, Armand, had come on the stage to take the life of a young man with his fellow vampires. They'd let this one struggle, fighting them off with a flimsy little knife before they'd spilled his blood. The roman couldn't help but feel all his lessons had been wasted, cast aside for such a crude disguise among humans. The boy wasn't even evil, just another worker at the docks.  
Once the show had closed he'd followed the guilt stricken apprentice to his rooms, hiding easily from those who would've wished to see him and possibly condemn him. Armand seemed forlorn, even in his newfound freedom from the children of Satan. He wanted to go to him, but at the same time what he'd just saw the boy do made him want to grab him by the shoulders and shake him. Had he really fallen so far?  
It was another two centuries before he'd been brought together with his fledgling to try to persuade Akasha to leave mankind to their own devices. As he stood apart from the man in front of him his mind couldn't help but travel back to their nights in Venice when the world had caressed them.   
" Oh, how I've missed you." He confessed. Armand stood there with the blank look, the mask he showed everyone. Marius wouldn't give up , not this time. He touched the cheek of his fledgling, hoping to see a flicker of emotion.  
He got what he desired as the mask finally cracked. It was a minute change in his eyes and the hardness of his visage, but it was there. " You never came for me. I was young." It was softly spoken, but the accusation was still there. He sighed, " I couldn't. I wanted to, but there was no way.." It was an excuse and he knew it. Amadeo did as well. "I was left to be the devil's fool for three hundred years. I waited in a forlorn hope, thinking there was no way because you'd died in that fire! Now you stand before me and say you've missed me, longed for me? I hardly find that believable sir."   
The words had meant to be cold and they had pierced him as intended. "You were always in my thoughts. I watched you from.." "So you did come, but offered no consolation? No glimpse to say you were alright and things could be mended?" Tears of blood hung at the edges of soft brown eyes. " You left me to rot in that eternal hell, knowing full well it was in your power to stop it!" His voice had increased in volume. " I wanted to.." He couldn't defend himself anymore. It was true, he had left his apprentice at deaths door, quickly making himself a new companion to heal with instead of retrieving the boy that had been put through so much in life and immortality already.  
The anger on his fledglings face was too much. " I will never forgive you for what you've done!" He whispered harshly before leaving, trying to wipe the blood off his face from his tears. Daniel had been concerned at his maker's appearance, but Armand had quickly resolved that. Marius watched the boy he'd never retrieved, finally realizing that he'd accomplished immortality without him, and it was himself that had been left behind.


End file.
